A Suitable Boy

Having read the novel a few months ago, I was quite excited about this series.I watched the first episode as soon as it was released.

However, from the very first episode I felt everything was quite rushed. How could they possibly do justice to a 1300+ pages long novel in 6 episodes? While the show starred some talented actors such as Tabu and Ishaan Khatter, the actors just couldn't turn the show around. It lacked a lot of character development and a large chunk of the history which was mentioned in the book was simply removed. At the end of the day, I felt this was simply a matchmaking drama. It could have been so much more!

When I started to read Vikram Seth's monster novel, 'A Suitable Boy', I found it hard going: had Seth really written 1400 pages about the attempts of a young woman to find a husband? But the story inside this framing ultimately expanded into an astonishingly broad, subtle, superbly written and cunningly plotted epic. This television adaptation can't quite bring the Seth's full vision to life, and feels much more like I first feared the book would be: an essentially simple story about finding the right partner. We do still see a lot of India; but at times it feels that it's merely providing background colour, while the characters are simplified and presented straight up as the people you gradually come to know over the book's many chapters. It's always hard judging a new version of something you already love fairly, but I couldn't engage with this series. Read the original instead: it's a literary masterpiece.

People giving it a lower rating might be the ones who are used to gripping tales these days from the very first episode as gone are the days of good slow burn soap operas. To really appreciate this, one needs to be familiar with Vikram Seth's writing, which itself takes time to dwell in you with its fine details to all the characters and the period they are set in and secondly, not many people are familiar with Mira Nair's work. She has a beautiful eye for details in her direction and the way she narrates her story is always with a kind of tenderness and her characters take their own time to amalgamate. I understand, at first, it's a bit unusual to see many familiar faces having lengthy conversations in english, especially the actors whom we have only seen in 'Hindi' speaking cinema/series till now. But I do believe the ensemble is doing justice to their roles and with time we will become more attached to them. I for one will be rooting for the show.

Was looking forward to this drama, well no more. Again a type of hype job that has not lived up to expectations. The acting is poor overall, probably due to lack of experience but so wooden that birds could have nested on them. It have an old feeling about, been there, done that like 30 years ago, no creativity or lacking in creativity, wooden like I said. Disappointing.

IMDB: no wonder imdb scores are lacking credibility lately, how can one guy "jamesdashner-11223" leave two 10/10 reviews for the same episode when all of the time saying nothing. Come on IMDB.

My Rating : 6/10

Great selection of actors, music and settings however it's too bland - too gimmicky and cringe most of the time.

The book is one of the greatest ever - this doesn't do justice to its scale and opulence.

OK for a one-time viewing.